Germany’s Grillo-Werke has achieved what it calls a “breakthrough” in the activation of methane, after years of intensive research succeeding in converting it to high-purity methanesulfonic acid (MSA) through direct sulfonation with sulfur trioxide.

The company said the start of large-scale production using the Grillo-Methane-Solfuonation process is planned up to 2019. It gave no details on where production will take place. Grillo points out that ethane, the main component of natural gas, is now primarily burned for heat and energy; however companies as well as public and private research entities have been searching intensively for a material utilization.

In addition to direct sulfonation, research is focusing on direct oxidation of methane to methanol and oxidative coupling to ethylene. The Duisburg, Germany-based company said its chemicals division solved the challenge of methane’s limited reactivity by processing it in a tailored reaction environment with specific activators. The process has been continuously optimized and now achieves almost full conversion at mild reaction conditions, it added.

The process is described as highly cost-competitive, not least because it uses natural gas and sulfur trioxide (SO₃) as feedstocks. What’s more, it includes no environmentally problematic intermediate steps and the resulting product generates no toxic byproducts.

MSA can be used in a vast number of applications, in particular in electroplating, electronics, industrial cleaning and pharmaceutical industries. Grillo said the market as a whole is experiencing strong overall growth.